We have three solid weeks ahead of us and boy are they are going to be busy! We will start our Bones and Skeletons unit, put the finishing touches on our personal narratives, head into the study of fractions and division, release our salmon into the Willamette River (more about that below), and near the end of those three weeks we will have a family breakfast (info also below).

First, the salmon release field trip: This is scheduled for next Tuesday, Dec. 10. We will be leaving school after lunch and recess, so there is no need to do anything special for lunch. As always, dressing for the weather is critical, as we will be out in the elements for at least an hour taking water measurements and possibly playing a thrilling game of Salmon vs. Predator! If you would like to volunteer on this field trip to the Jefferson St. Park in Milwaukie, let me know. There are still a few openings available. Email me or check with me before or after school if you are interested in helping out. We will leave on TriMet at about 12:20 and return around 2:40.

As I mentioned to several parents at conferences, I am going to try out SpellingCity.com, an online spelling site, for the next three weeks. I gave the username and password info to most parents, but missed a few. If I didn’t get the info out to you, it should be coming home on Monday. For most students, it’s the same username and password as the IXL math site. There is an assignment posted with this week’s words listed and ready to go. There are games and exercises to help master the words on the site. There will be no paper-and-pencil spelling homework for the next three weeks while we work out the kinks in our use of SpellingCity. I would like to get feedback from parents and students during this time. Get the free SpellingCity iPad app here, the Android version here, or the Kindle app here.

This week’s words are listed below:

1.

benefit

2.

complete

3.

develop

4.

dismay

5.

ease

6.

hail

7.

lack

8.

master

9.

patriot

10.

project

11.

recommend

12.

remark

13.

represent

14.

sufficient

15.

utter

Please put the morning of Friday, Dec. 20 from about 8:15 to 9:30 on your calendar for our Second Annual Fourth-Grade Winter Holiday Family Breakfast and Singalong. All fourth-grade families are invited to school that morning (more details on the exact timing and what to bring later on in December), but I wanted to give you a heads up that this is happening. It was a lot of fun last year and I have no doubt that this year will be just as successful.